A post on the Electronic Arts UK Forums outlines DICE's policy on dedicated servers for Battlefield 3, where Mikael Kalms explains that unlike Battlefield 2 and like Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the software to run servers will not be released to the public, as game servers will be operated by Ranked Server Providers, even though the option of running a server in unranked mode will be included. This is may impact players in countries with smaller player bases, as they state that they do not plan on making local servers available everywhere: "We try to strike a balance where there are game servers available across the globe, while still keeping the number of RSPs at a level where we can offer reasonable support to each individual company. Since we prefer to work with larger hosting companies, and we focus on countries where we have a larger player base, there will not be game servers available in every country on the planet." There's also word that ranked severs will require PunkBuster, and that DICE will also attempt to make the game work properly with third-party anti-cheating organizations PBBans, GGC-Stream, and PunksBusted, though these are not officially supported. The post also explains the difference between ranked and unranked servers, and offers some details on the administrator interface. As for where servers will be located, they say: "The list of RSPs which will run BF3 game servers at launch is not ready yet. Once it is, we will publilalalala [sic?] widely." Thanks VG247.